A New "Progressive Era"

...Not By a Long Shot

Eric Alterman delivers a gut-wrenching, blistering critique of our Nation, how we govern ourselves and the pernicious influence wealth, campaign money, propaganda and reaction are having on our (what I would consider ignorant) Citizens. "Kabuki Democracy" is a rare treat on the internets (thanks Digby for highlighting it), one that must be read and thought about.

Alterman holds out hope that

the Obama administration's willingness to compromise so extensively on the promises that candidate Obama made during the 2008 campaign would be that as president, he is playing for time. Obama is taking the best deal on the table today, but hopes and expects that once he is re-elected in 2012—a pretty strong bet, I'd say—he will build on the foundations laid during his first term to bring on the fundamental "change" that is not possible in today's environment. This would be consistent with FDR's strategy during his second term and makes a kind of sense when one considers the nature of the opposition he faces today and the likelihood that it will discredit itself following a takeover of one or both houses in 2010.

Well, "hope" has been a staple of Brand Obama for a while, no? And perhaps Alterman, like many other left-leaning people, has not yet been burned hard enough by the failure to deliver on the progressive promises made during the 2008 campaign. This patriot held out too, hoping for much of the past year that the Obama Administration would make good on righting our ship of state and make the changes necessary to salve the pain of the past 30-40 years. To be fair, some good has emerged - e.g., the 2009 ERRA stimulus program, a New START Treaty to further reduce nuclear weapons, and a couple of non-wingnut Supreme Court justice nominations(but far from liberal, much less progressive). Other "achievements," such as health care reform and financial regulation reform, are at best poor compromises developed by the real powers in DC (permanent incumbent politicians and their corporate lobbyist friends) to appear as relief for major problems while protecting those who are always protected. And there is much undone - or worse, continued to be done) such as a foreign policy subservient to a putative "ally," domestic wiretapping without judicial review, torture and illegal imprisonments and even assassinations of U.S. citizens at the order of the President.

But our times call for decisive, radical actions, not the compromised measures or "half loaves" we've been delivered thus far. And although Alterman tries to be optimistic, I think he correctly identifies the real problems inherent in our government today:

the system is rigged, and it's rigged against us.

This is one reason I previously highlighted Drifty's post and George Carlin's famous "American Dream" monologue. To his credit, Alterman also points to one of the methods by which we "fix" the system - namely:

progressives who take movement organizing seriously need to develop their institutions independently

and

[they] need to keep up the pressure they have begun to place on the mainstream media not to adopt the deliberately misleading and frequently false frames foisted on readers and viewers by an increasingly self-confident and well-funded right-wing noise machine (thank the FSM - or Al Gore - for the internets!)

and

we need better, smarter organizing at every level and a willingness on the part of liberals and leftists to work with what remains of the center to begin the process of reforms that are a beginning, rather than an endpoint in the process of societal transformation

These practical measures are a start. But they are not enough. Progressives also need to wrest control of their local parties and governments from the hands of traditional party functionaries, many of whom have only "done government" their whole lives. In short, they need to lift a page from the Fundamentalist "Goldwaterites" inside the GOP who, once empowered, decided to trash the place (but remain, despite their national minority, firmly in charge of the political agenda).

And once wrested from the hands of the "government is the problem" believers (who are the politicians inside the government themselves!), they must fight to deliver government that delivers, government worthy of respect, government that is a vocation and profession, government that is the solution to the problem instead of being perceived as the problem, and government that is not corrupt but serves all.

Unless and until these things occur, those who believe in progressive, thoughtful, enriching and empowering government will remain on the outside looking in, bitching and moaning, and wondering what the hell kind of country they are living in. Can these things actually occur? Yes, they can. But only where they are fought for by those willing to fight for them.

And fight for them they must because we are in a race in this country. A race to turn from the cliff before we all go down together.